The seafood industry and supply chain lack information indicating the sustainability and perishability of associated products. Additionally, seafood shipping units are often split and consolidated, complicating origin and perishability tracking of each individual unit. Stakeholders want to know what happens to seafood, from ship or aquaculture pond to supermarket shelf. Consumers also want to know where the seafood came from and how fresh it is. Processors and distributors also care about sustainability, conditions during shipping, and any potential product diversion or switching. Other stakeholders, like customs authorities and transporters, need accurate, high-resolution information on the seafood to verify the product's authenticity and expedite customs proceedings.
The current systems in place provide only limited information and are easily tampered with and cumbersome to operate. Some systems even require users to manually gather and enter data. Seafood supply chain tracking systems only provide part of the information and do not allow all stakeholders to easily access relevant info as the systems do not currently possess a means for fully automated, multi-dimensional shore-to-shelf traceability. Current systems include bar code, QR code and RFID tracking systems, which allow shipments to be passively tracked by separate reader devices or agents, and usually do not process, analyze or store data. Bar code or QR code tracking systems require the printed codes to be read by an optical reader (OR) device in order to spatially link the labeled shipment with the reader. Furthermore, such systems do not collect vital environmental data, such as temperature, light, or physical disruption. While RFID tracking systems may dispense with the necessity of individually scanning items using readers and utilize RF gates instead, the RFID chips often provide only spatial information. Even systems of RFID tags associated with temperature or humidity sensors can only log and/or transmit small amounts of data at very low bandwidth, and require an accompanying network interface to provide access to wireless networks to be set up in order for such systems to work. Such systems are limited in the breadth and depth of data that they can collect (i.e. due to limited memory), and further limited by the investment inherent in wireless network setup and by the structural necessity of passing through reader gates. Furthermore, even when some form of supply chain tracking system is in place, multiple stakeholders and end consumers cannot easily access relevant, in-depth information.
Fishermen and transporters may lack technological capability and may not have the time or attention to spare to correctly install, set up or activate tracking systems or devices. One mistake may render an entire set of data inaccurate or incomplete. Especially when accurate and up-to-date data are needed to cross borders or ensure compliance with sustainability guidelines, such mistakes could delay processing or require inspectors to personally check the product, incurring thousands of dollars in losses due to spoilage or fees for inspectors.
The lack of easily obtainable and accessible traceability information linking fishermen, transporters, processors, distributors and end consumers limits the ability of all involved to make informed choices, and necessitates time-consuming and expensive regulation. Without detailed transportation quality information, fishermen and distributors may not be able to choose the best transportation service. Without automated real-time environmental data reporting, processors or distributors could only use passive tracker logs or manifests to document unsafe product rather than to actively prevent product shrinkage. Furthermore, without broad, automated data collection, it is difficult for seafood producers, processors and distributors to establish credibility in regards to food safety or to resolve food safety issues. Without the same broad, high-resolution data, auditing agencies cannot efficiently determine the degree of sustainability in seafood production and within the seafood product supply chain. Without such data, shipments must often wait at national borders for safety inspections, negatively affecting the freshness, quality and value of the product. Were such data available, border crossings could be expedited with minimal danger to consumers, reducing both inspector fees and the risk of product spoilage. And finally, without access to detailed origin and supply chain environmental information, end consumers cannot make fully informed purchasing choices, which leads to further wasted resources.